


she would want you to

by thegirl



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-31 23:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirl/pseuds/thegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sheriff is worried about his son, and to be honest, Tara’s worried about both of them but she doesn't say anything because it isn't her place.</p><p>(Once, just once, Stiles accidentally calls her mom, and his face loses all colour. Neither of them ever mention it)</p>
            </blockquote>





	she would want you to

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the amazing song Pompeii by Bear's Den.

The Sheriff is worried about his son.

By nature, Sheriff Stilinski is a worrier. He lost his wife when his son was barely ten years old, and once he had gotten drunk off duty and for gods knows why sent her a drunk dial where he slurred that poor Mrs Stilinski had said to him John Stilinski don’t you go worrying about me I’m a big girl I can take care of myself but he cried that she couldn’t take care of himself and she was dead now because of him.

That had been an awkward morning at the station, and if she had made him a couple of extra coffees just the way he likes them that took forever and a day to make, well, it wasn’t because he had cried that she’s dead now because she couldn’t take care of herself and I should’ve worried more what kind of piece of crap husband doesn’t worry himself silly when his wife is diagnosed with cancer? and that he’s determined to not let Stiles hurt in anyway, he won’t let Stiles hurt himself like she hurt herself and he won’t let anybody else hurt Stiles like others hurt her and nobody will touch Stiles like everybody took a piece of her.

Tara has been Sheriff Stilinski’s second in command and later, deputy, for longer than Stiles has existed. She just enjoys the work, and it pays well, probably more than she deserves because it’s an easy job, at least it is to her, and people say to her that they’d be lost without her and that’s always nice to hear, but she thinks she should’ve done more.

If the late Mrs Stilinski (Tara realises one morning that she can’t remember her name, although they had only met in passing, and she feels awful because she remembers the woman’s wide mouth that was nearly always smiling and her auburn curls that later fell out due to the chemo and she remembers her large, dark, expressive eyes but she can’t remember the poor, poor woman’s name and she could slap herself she really could but she doesn’t dare ask the Sheriff or Stiles and she can’t pluck up the courage to ask anybody else so mentally she refers to her as the late Mrs Stilinski) could see what had happened to her little family, to how her husband buries himself in murders and mysteries and bottles of jack when nothing important is going on, and how Stiles and him barely talk anymore, and how Stiles is constantly getting in trouble and acting out more and more, well, Tara thinks it would probably break the poor woman’s heart.

Recently, however, the Sheriff seems to have found something of interest in his son again. He barely touches the bottle whenever Stiles is around, because he knows that is son is intelligent, as well as she knows it, because Stiles Stilinski is a clever boy, a quick boy and the Sheriff doesn’t want Stiles knowing how he copes (or rather, doesn’t cope) with the death of his wife. And suddenly, Stiles is around more and more, in a constant state of talking or walking with his long limbs barely keeping up with his movement and his neck twisting round and he’s got her eyes, oh dear lord, he’s got the late Mrs Stilinski’s large, dark, expressive eyes. The Sheriff seems to be weaning himself off the bottle because his boy’s around so much.

Whether he’s laughing or smiling or impatient or curious, to Tara at least, Stiles’ eyes always look sad and worried even when the boy himself rarely looks that way.  
The Sheriff is worried about his son, and he tells her as much when he has a faint smell of Jack on his breath, and it hasn’t smelt that way for weeks.

“I just don’t know where he is anymore...” he stutters and slurs like he doesn’t understand his own tongue, his own words “I mean, he says he’s with Scott but... but I’m not sure, you know... I’m not sure cause they- there’s people shaying he was with Derek Hale and I dun... I don’t like that kid... Stiles said before that he was a murderrur... Twice! Twice said he was a murderer, an’ now sayin’ he isn’t and... what... what did I do wrong?”

She makes him extras of his favourite coffee for a week and leaves open an article from her magazine titled You and Your Teenager, because she doesn’t have a teenager of her own - she used to teach primary school, not high school or even middle school. But she makes an effort to take the pressure off the Sheriff by helping Stiles with his math homework like she used to, and is pleasantly surprised that she still easily makes sense of the higher level of math, and smiles all over her face.

(Once, just once, Stiles accidently calls her mom, and his face loses all colour. Neither of them ever mention it)

Stiles still comes by and late Mrs Stilinski would probably have something to say about his clothes (moth holes everywhere and a worn out collar) and the fact his hair has grown out greasy and she considers making him some special coffee as well because the poor boy looks beyond exhausted but in the end she sends him a smile as he leaves because it doesn’t cost anyone anything.

The Sheriff is worried about his son, and to be honest, Tara’s worried about both of them but she doesn’t say anything because it isn’t her place and she stays up all night trying to remember poor late Mrs Stilinski’s name.

Claudia, Claudia, Claudia.

It comes to her in the early hours of the morning just before woman (she thinks it’s a woman - she can’t be sure) with slashes all over her face (how could anybody survive that?) chokes her so the air cannot get to her brain and Tara knows she’s going to die because Tara is not a stupid woman and in moments like this, she wishes she was, and before the world fades to white she thinks of her own mother, in the nursing home, and she thinks of Claudia and she can almost hear Stiles calling her mom and she can almost smell the jack on the Sheriff’s breath and she thinks of the little girl in her maths class with red hair and a genius brain and she thinks of the name Claudia, Claudia, Clau-

The world ends.


End file.
